Display having redundant segments
First Claim
1. A display circuit, comprising:
- (a) a substrate on which is defined a circuit of conducting traces;
(b) a plurality of segments electrically coupled to the conducting traces and configured in a predefined pattern on said substrate, at least some of the segments being configured in segment pairs, each segment pair including a first and a second segment that are proximate to each other and extend in a common direction, but are spaced apart, each segment pair comprising a portion of at least one icon character;
(c) segment control means, coupled to the segments, for causing selected ones of said segments to be visually perceptible by simultaneously energizing each first segment in a segment pair whenever each second segment in a segment pair is energized, said selected ones of the segments thereby visually representing a desired icon character; and
(d) whereby a defective segment pair that includes a failed segment and an operating segment continues to accurately represent a part of the desired icon character, said failed segment providing a visual warning that one of the first and the second segments comprising that defective segment pair has failed by appearing visually different than the operating segment of that defective segment pair.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Redundant segment display characters are used to provide a fail-safe indication of critical parameters. In one preferred form of the invention, selected segments of a redundant segment character include pairs of segments that are arranged proximate to each other and extend generally parallel to each other. The pairs of redundant segments are activated simultaneously in response to multiplexed fore plane and back plane drive signals applied to conductive regions of a liquid crystal display. The remaining portions of the redundant segment character each comprise single activated regions. The portions of the display character that include redundant segments are selected to minimize errors in reading a numeric value indicated by the character in the event that one of the segments fails to operate properly. In another preferred form of the invention, all of the portions of the character are pairs of redundant segments. In yet another embodiment, the pairs of redundant segments are arranged serially, end-to-end. In the event that one of the redundant segments fails to activate or always remains activated, such failure is visually apparent to an operator by comparison to the other segment of the redundant pair.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A display circuit, comprising:
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(a) a substrate on which is defined a circuit of conducting traces; (b) a plurality of segments electrically coupled to the conducting traces and configured in a predefined pattern on said substrate, at least some of the segments being configured in segment pairs, each segment pair including a first and a second segment that are proximate to each other and extend in a common direction, but are spaced apart, each segment pair comprising a portion of at least one icon character; (c) segment control means, coupled to the segments, for causing selected ones of said segments to be visually perceptible by simultaneously energizing each first segment in a segment pair whenever each second segment in a segment pair is energized, said selected ones of the segments thereby visually representing a desired icon character; and (d) whereby a defective segment pair that includes a failed segment and an operating segment continues to accurately represent a part of the desired icon character, said failed segment providing a visual warning that one of the first and the second segments comprising that defective segment pair has failed by appearing visually different than the operating segment of that defective segment pair. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A fail-safe character display circuit, comprising:
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(a) a substrate having at least two layers, an electrically conductive back plane, and a circuit comprising conducting traces formed on the substrate, at least one alphanumeric character being defined by electrically conductive regions applied to the substrate that are electrically coupled to the conducting traces, an electrical field developed between selected ones of the electrically conductive regions and the back plane in response to an applied voltage visually affecting said selected ones of said electrically conductive regions to visually represent segments defining at least one alphanumeric character, at least some of said electrically conductive regions being configured as pairs of closely spaced apart segments that extend in a common direction, arranged in a predefined pattern; (b) a liquid crystal layer disposed between said at least two layers of the substrate, optically perceptible properties of portions of said liquid crystal layer changing in response to the electric field; and (c) control means, coupled through the conducting traces to the electrically conductive regions, for controlling the segments to cause selected segments to be visually perceptible in order to represent a desired character, wherein one of each pair of segments is energized whenever the other of each pair of segments is energized so that a failure of one segment comprising the pair of segments is visually evident, the other segment comprising that pair of segments continuing to be visually perceptible when selected by the control means so that the selected segments continue to accurately represent the desired character. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A fail-safe visual display character, comprising:
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(a) segment means, for visually representing a desired icon character in response to electrical signals, said segment means including redundant segment means for accurately representing the desired icon character during a failure mode in which the segment means are partially inoperative, said redundant segment means having first and second parts that are proximate to each other and extend in a common direction for each portion of an icon character in which the redundant segment means are disposed, only one part of which must be operative in response to the electrical signals to visually represent a selected portion of the icon character; and (b) control means for producing the signals to selectively energize the segment means and visually display the desired icon character, the first part of the redundant segment means being energized whenever the second part of the redundant segment means is energized so that a failure of one of the first and second parts of the redundant segment means is evident when only one of the first and second parts responds to the electrical signals. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification